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Source: The Independent.

A famous American marksman and author was shot dead yesterday on a Texas rifle range. Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who claimed to have been the most prolific sniper in American history, had a bounty put on his head by insurgents in Iraq, who dubbed him "The Devil of Ramadi."

He was at Rough Creek Lodge's shooting range near Forth Worth, Texas, with another man. Both were fatally shot. Witnesses said a gunman opened fire on the men at around 3:30 yesterday afternoon before fleeing in a pick-up truck belonging to one of the victims, according to a local newspaper. The newspaper said a 25-year-old man was later taken into custody nearby and that charges were expected. The motive for the shooting is unclear.

Kyle, 38, wrote the best-selling book, "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History," about the 150-plus insurgents he killed between 1999 and 2009. He was being sued for defamation by Jesse Ventura, former Governor of Minnesota, over the book's claim that Kyle punched Ventura in a 2006 bar fight over unpatriotic remarks. Ventura said the punch never happened. Kyle had asked that Ventura's claims of invasion of privacy and "unjust enrichment" be dismissed, saying there was no legal basis for them. But a federal judge said the lawsuit should proceed. The suit was set to begin in August.

The married father of two, from Odessa, Texas, was president of Craft International, providing sniper and security training for the US military. He saw four tours of Iraq, during which he was shot twice. He received three Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars with Valor.

1. If only he'd been allowed to carry a gun there, he could've defended himself...

Seriously, this sounds like a horrible murder. Absolutely disgusting. I'm glad they caught the guy. It seems so deliberate, you have to wonder which someone wanted a war hero dead so bad he'd go after him on a rifle range. Personal grudge?

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(On edit: I see now that the main suspect is another vet suffering from PTSD and that allegedly the Kyle and the other murder victim had gone to the shooting range to counsel the guy. This is a terrible tragedy. But it shows that even those whom society trusts with gun are capable of making judgment errors that lead to needless deaths. The fact remains that the death-by-gun rate in communities with strict gun laws is significantly lower than the rate in areas without them. Even if you think guns don't kill people but people do, we can't outlaw people but we can regulate guns.)

38. Do we know that the PTSD wasn't a ruse

to get Kyle to meet him? Are there any more details on the shooter yet? I've read a couple of the articles. I can't help but wonder if there wasn't a personal grudge about something else that Kyle was unaware of.

I think it's great that Kyle wanted to help a fellow vet, but wouldn't it be better to do that kind of volunteer work under the direction of a vet counselor?

18. That's beside the point.

At least he would have had a fighting chance. If that criminal had only played by the rules and given him the chance to draw. Then truly, the criminals would only win 50 percent of the time, just like in the Old West.

39. Well, you know, what could possibly go wrong?

61. I KNOW! Those pesky no-gun zones are putting us all in

danger!!

We need MOAR GUNZ!

Yes, for some reason, all I'm getting from the loonies is that he was hunted down by parties unknown for reasons unknown using techniques unknown in order to take down the "most lethal man in American." Which would actually prove that really excellent gun skills is a magnet to crime, not a deterrent.

3. Oh well.

6. It's not a ho-hum thing, JSR. This is what gun regulation is supposed to stop.

Plus, I might add, we know absolutely nothing about what Kyle's views on gun control were. Not that it matters. I want to see assault weapons taken off the market to prevent the murders of people regardless of their views on the 2nd Amendment. And you should, too.

19. Here is an inkling as to Kyle's views on gun control..

"In the wake of the slayings of 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in December, Kyle was interviewed in January about rising calls for curbing gun violence in the United States. He told the website guns.com that he favored arming teachers who have been screened and trained and spoke against restrictions on gun owners."

71. No

I'm saying we should set by example. The government always talks about gun-control, yet they keep upgrading their own arms. They should disarm, not us. Stop the wars, stop the snipers, and most of all, stop the drones and NDAA.

79. I think we should stop the wars,

I'd say Newtown parents, and their allies. and very many millions of citizens are now the ones most adamant that something must be done to curb the easy access to highly lethal weaponry. "Government" by and large is merely reacting to this new reality.

Whether anything meaningful will be done, especially on the federal level, remains to be seen.

63. I don't think gun control laws are intended to address this sort of thing

This is one of those things that falls under the "price of 'freedom' ".

As long as it is legal to own guns, there is nothing that can prevent a bunch of mentally disturbed people from blasting each other.

I suppose if a person is receiving treatment for PTSD, they should be in a database that makes it illegal form them to buy or possess firearms. But that would have the side-effect of discouraging them from seeking treatment.

Which is more important to you, your sanity or your guns? For most gun owners, the answer to that question is obvious.

70. Oh, obviously. Nothing will stop every gun murder in America.

I didn't mean to imply THAT. In fact, that's the real conundrum of gun control policy. If you do something and it prevents a murder that might otherwise have happened, you'll never know. Meanwhile, murders you didn't prevent continue to make the news.

You have to look at hard numbers and not give a shit about the anecdotes, even though it's the anecdotes that create the political will to regulate guns. In the aggregate, communities with strict gun control laws have lower than average gun homicide rates. Communities with lax gun control laws have higher than average gun homicide rates. But no one tells us this on TV because it's boring. For some places, it bores some people to death.

68. Gun regulation wouldn't apply to Iraq where most of his life's portion of shooting was done.

73. I admire your talent for making irrelevant comments.

But for the record, Iraq's American-level proliferation of firearms didn't prevent a dictator from taking over their government & introducing a totalitarian regime, didn't prevent a modern army from conquering their country, and didn't prevent complete chaos from rising up and taking over their streets after the initial crisis was over.

But as I said above, this has nothing to do with the fact that a mad was murdered by another man who shouldn't have had a gun in his hands.

12. lol it's not murder if it was an iraqi?

16. It's not murder if it's in a battlefield, no. And a sniper, if you think about it...

is going to do a lot less damage to civilians than a drone, an airstrike, or a swarm of Marines moving house-to-house through an Iraqi neighborhood. Obviously I don't think attacking Iraq in the first place was anything but malicious and wrongheaded. But I'm not so heartless as to laugh at the death of a man who died trying to be a humanitarian to a suffering fellow vet. And I'm not so blind, as you seem to be, that I'll blame the loyal-serving ground troops for the sins of the Bush gang.

28. Actually, I'd say it is murder on a battlefield.

32. You certainly *can* say that. But you got to keep in mind...

that you're basically making up your own definitions to well established terms. You can call it "floral display" if you like. For the rest of society there's a core understanding that battles are different than peace, even if you can't see the difference.

This is, of course, not to say that the battles he fought in were necessary, well chosen, or not the result of a crooked bunch of oil-grabbers who'd hijacked the American government. But I don't want to live in a country where the military is free to ignore or countermand the directives of the civilian government.

And, again, without defending the particular views of this one sniper, I will say that a sniper is a far more selective killer in a battlefield than an airstrike, a scud, a mortar, a bunkerbuster, a tank, a drone, or a swarm of troops going house to house through a neighborhood looking for a suspected insurgent. Snipers rarely kill innocents; a precision targeting that most of American battlefield firepower cannot claim.

65. i'm afraid i can't be so blaise about killing

even when the government says it's ok. what i won't do is fetishize the military. my 17 year old son doesn't remember a time when we weren't at war. not every soldier is a hero. some are just killers. and some are murderers.

77. No one's more offended than me about the all-war policy Bush started in 2002

But that doesn't mean we get to make false equivalencies between military zones and civilian zones. In fact, that sort of false comparison--saying the whole country is a war zone because of the short-lived threat from terrorists--is the core of the Bush administration's sins.

15. Well, there's certainly a link between the sword he bore and the sword he fell by.

Looking at the other stories in LBN, it turns out he was on the rifle range with a buddy to help counsel a 3rd guy who was suffering from PTSD. In hindsight, not the best meeting spot. But he died trying to be a humanitarian.

27. I don't think you understand what "die by the sword" means.

I don't apologize for his world view, but he didn't didn't die as a result of his killing people. He was murdered, apparently, because he was trying to encourage a vet with PTSD to seek treatment. There might be some irony there, but if he'd been an asshole callous to the suffering of a fellow human being that morning, he'd still be alive.

"Full Metal Jacket" (the last 30 minutes) if you don't think snipers murder. Don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, so I'll leave it at that.

Oh wait, if a sniper does it on a battlefield, it doesn't qualify as 'murder'? But if a sniper is killed on a gun range it is 'murder'?

Kyle was an asshole who sought to profit from having taken others' lives BY WRITING A BOOK ABOUT IT. Jeesh. Most decent combat vets don't like to discuss the casualites they inflicted, much less brag about it.

90. I think he is getting at the notion of karma

Which is supposed to work in multiple ways and on multiple levels. It doesn't have to be directly comparable tit for tat retribution. Also karma in this case would not care whether the sniper's killings were technically legal, if the wars were unjust.

I am not saying that I personally believe in the concept, though it does have a certain appeal to many people.

60. Ha! Just saw it. Funny!!!! nt

14. You can disagree with someone's view - but why he made up that story

about Ventura and punching him was strange. All witnesses say it did not go down that way.
Ventura should continue the suit on his estate as they will continue to make $$ off the book that has the lie about Ventura in it

96. I guess he wasn't that big of a fan of the first amendment then...

36. Every one of you who responded to the OP with more cutesy snark against gun owners...

...have not only disrespected a man who put his life on the line for his country, but also potentially hurt the perception that many Americans have towards Democrats.

I am the proud uncle of a Marine sniper who has performed tours of duty in Afghanistan. If it was him who had been shot instead of Kyle, my rage against your dismissive clucking would have been thoroughly justified.

My heart goes out to Kyle's family and friends. And that area is more properly classified as a resort instead of a gun range - I've driven through that area of Texas before while hunting ghost towns and fossils.

66. I have my dad's Bronze Star here on my wall. Just one.

Me? Zero. I don't have dad's kind of courage.

You know what? For that reason alone, I think it's appropriate for the oh-so sensitive and morally-tuned among us to cut him some fucking slack and hope that the authorities find justice for his family.

91. My father was a weapons expert and an officer in the Army Rangers.

When he left the service he put away the war and guns and lived productive and peaceful life. He would never have a gun in the house. Plenty of brave men who served their country do not come home to glorify guns, violence and death. Putting yourself in the middle of the gun culture is dangerous and, although it is regretful, it should never be surprising that it can lead to death by gun.

82. I wonder why the folks at the range didn't stop the killer from leaving the scene?

89. that question is truly the one I want to know

any killing like this is senseless and terrible, but given all of those folks who may have had guns at the range - weapons loaded, out and ready to fire... and who were well trained and likely better aim than most.... still, the perpetrator got away?

The story unfolding will bring more news I'm sure, but for the killer to exit the scene?

94. it does beg the question

what happened after the initial shooting? did people react at all, even with guns at the ready or is the public, even with training, skills and weapons, not the answer to bad folks with guns?

No doubt they would attempt to protect themselves if they knew of a threat at home where they had time to wrap their heads around the problem, but do they actually choose to have a hand at defending or protecting others in public situations? Did anyone try? I am interested to find out in this particular case.

85. Just goes to prove -

- that even the most vigilant defender - someone who had to constantly be aware of threats during his 4 tours of Iraq - was not some wild-west gunslinger thinking that everyone was out for him. His guard was down as he didn't perceive a threat from a friend.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Have to feel bad for the family of the man that shot them, too. Until we better address mental health issues, including PTSD, these sad stories will continue.